Jews and Judaism

News about Jews and Judaism, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Jul. 8, 2015

David Azoulay, Israel's strictly Orthodox minister of religious services, says he does not consider Reform Jews to be Jewish; comment inflames tensions between Israel's Orthodox Jewish political body and American Jews, who fall mostly among more liberal Conservative and Reform Jewish strains. MORE

Jul. 6, 2015

Israeli cabinet rejects liberal- and centrist-backed proposal to ease process of converting to Judaism, requirement of filing for citizenship; vote signals growing strength of ultra-Orthodox parties and leaves conversion under control of Chief Rabbinate. MORE

Jun. 24, 2015

Egyptian television series The Jewish Quarter has shocked many in country with its sympathetic portrayal of Egyptian Jews and its depiction of their strong anti-Zionism; show follows Jewish family living in Cairo in 1948. MORE

Jun. 12, 2015

Spain's Parliament passes law that offers citizenship to thousands of Sephardic Jews whose ancestors were expelled in 1492; measure takes effect October 2015. MORE

Jun. 12, 2015

Lawyer for Jonathan Rosenblatt, rabbi of Bronx synagogue Riverdale Jewish Center who has attracted attention for having taken boys and young men to a sauna naked, says he is discussing buyout and expects arrangement for Rosenblatt to step down soon. MORE

Jun. 12, 2015

Eve M Kahn Antiques column; book The Archive Thief: The Man Who Salvaged French Jewish History in the Wake of the Holocaust by Lisa Moses Leff, analyzes what motivated Zosa Szajkowski to obsessively collect Nazi-government paperwork that became valuable trove of archival material for those studying Judaica. MORE

Jun. 11, 2015

New York City's Board of Health votes to consider waving new rule that would require Orthodox Jewish parents to sign consent form before allowing circumcision ritual that can expose infants to herpes; plan had enraged Orthodox leaders; Mayor Bill de Blasio has urged more cooperative plan that would involve distributing brochures to educate parents on potential risks. MORE

Jun. 10, 2015

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, having replaced some Board of Health members who were appointed by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and filled vacant board positions with allies, prepares to present plan to ease restrictions on controversial circumcision ritual practiced by ultra-Orthodox rabbis. MORE

Jun. 4, 2015

Bronx prosecutors are asking potential victims to come forward with information about Jonathan Rosenblatt, prominent rabbi of Riverdale Jewish Center who is said to have behaved inappropriately with young boys during long sauna chats in which they were fully naked; statute of limitations may long have past for all but most serious crimes, but district attorney's office still seeks to offer counseling and other services. MORE

Jun. 3, 2015

Op-Ed article by Merryl H Tisch, New York State Board of Regents chancellor and David G Sciarra, Education Law Center executive director, holds board of education in East Ramapo, NY, has grossly mismanaged district's finances and educational programs; notes board, dominated by members of Orthodox Jewish community, has brutally cut staffing and programs at expense of African-American and Latino public school students while diverting money to largely Orthodox private schools; calls on legislators to approve plan that would appoint fiscal monitor. MORE

May. 31, 2015

Michael Frank Cultured Traveler column on finding traces of once thriving Jewish communities in Fez, Casablanca, and Marrakesh, Morocco. MORE

May. 27, 2015

Thousands of Sephardic Jews in Turkey who are of Spanish descent are applying for Spanish citizenship ahead of law granting nationality to Jews who were expelled during Inquisition in 1492; most are trying to flee what they view as rising anti-Semitism in Turkey. MORE

May. 19, 2015

Bid to impose monitor on East Ramapo School District in Rockland County meets resistance in New York Legislature; New York State Education Dept had concluded that East Ramapo school board show favoritism to Orthodox Jewish students, drawing money from public schools to students in local yeshivas. MORE

May. 12, 2015

Famed psychosexual therapist Dr Ruth Westheimer is honored by the New York City Council as part of Jewish Heritage Month. MORE

May. 10, 2015

Brooklyn's dwindling population of Jewish veterans of Russian Red Army celebrates 70th anniversary of Allied victory over Nazi forces in World War II; tribute highlights role of soldiers whose importance has commonly been dwarfed by that of British and American forces. MORE

May. 2, 2015

Samuel G Freedman On Religion column explores Jewish ritual of counting the omer, observance associated with pursuit of spiritual mindfulness by practicing introspection and study of religious texts. MORE

May. 1, 2015

Exhibition 'Yiddish Fight Club' is opening at Yivo Institute of Jewish Research at the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan; features professional fighters through 20th century who garnered large Jewish audience. MORE

Apr. 29, 2015

Rachelle David, student at North Shore Hebrew Academy High School in Great Neck, NY, will become first Orthodox yeshiva student, male or female, ever to attend West Point; values personal discipline, physical fitness and leadership and hopes to one day be Army general. MORE

Apr. 28, 2015

The Appraisal column; New York State attorney general's office is reviewing allegations that $13 million sale of synagogue-owned nursing home Home of the Sages in Lower East Side to apartment developer will largely benefit its president, Samuel Aschkenazi, and further diminish Jewish identity of the neighborhood. MORE

Apr. 18, 2015

Mark Oppenheimer Beliefs column examines increasingly common phenomenon of married couples, both pastors, sharing ministry duties within a single congregation; observes that in branches of many Christian religions, and in most streams of Judaism, women make up increasing number of seminarians, leading to increasing numbers of both heterosexual and homosexual pastor couples. MORE

Apr. 10, 2015

Conflicts are increasing between ultra-Orthodox Jewish men refusing to sit next to female airline passengers, sometimes delaying or disrupting flights; men are trying to follow their faith by avoiding all contact with women who are not their wives; situation always existed but stories of such skirmishes seem to be on the rise because ultra-Orthodox communities are growing due to high birth rates. MORE

Apr. 3, 2015

David Brooks Op-Ed column submits story of Exodus, read by Jews as part of Passover Seder, offers means of overcoming fear; holds storytelling presents way of naming and understanding fear, and of moving past it; says instead of urging blunt confrontation of fear, Exodus narrative takes more sophisticated approach of dealing with it through love, storytelling and song. MORE

Mar. 31, 2015

New York's Museum of Jewish Heritage-A Living Memorial to the Holocaust plans to announce partnership with National Yiddish Theater-Folksbiene; leaders hope Folksbiene will help shore up flagging attendance at the museum, and say partnership could emerge as full merger by 2017. MORE

Mar. 27, 2015

Argentine court dismisses case against Pres Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and her supporters that accused them of conspiring to cover up Iran's involvement in 1994 bombing of Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. MORE

Mar. 27, 2015

Grief, shock and sense of urgency affect large Orthodox Jewish community of Midwood, Brooklyn, in wake of fire that killed seven children after family's hot plate was left on overnight; safety of Sabbath ritual is re-examined and many smoke detectors are sold. MORE

Mar. 23, 2015

New York City officials warn about dangers of leaving hot plates or stove burners on overnight to warm food, common practice among Orthodox Jews to avoid violating prohibition of work on the Sabbath; malfunctioning hot plate was responsible for blaze that killed seven Orthodox children in Midwood, Brooklyn. MORE

Mar. 22, 2015

Fire that killed seven siblings in Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Midwood, Brooklyn, has raised concerns over common practice of leaving meal warming overnight on hotplate ahead of Sabbath as means of skirting day's restrictions on work; fire was begun by malfunctioning hotplate. MORE

Mar. 20, 2015

New-York Historical Society exhibition Lincoln and the Jews features letters, photographs and other artifacts that document Pres Abraham Lincoln's interactions with growing religious minority. MORE

Mar. 16, 2015

Denise L Eger will be installed as first openly gay president of Central Conference of American Rabbis, which is the rabbinical arm of Reform Judaism. MORE

Mar. 15, 2015

Dating app called JSwipe is exclusively for Jewish singles looking for romance and is as proficient as Tinder. MORE

Mar. 15, 2015

Lisa Schwarzbaum travel article on Danube River cruise that highlights Jewish heritage at it travels from Budapest to city of Nuremberg in Bavaria, Germany. MORE

Mar. 6, 2015

Rachel Beyda, student at University of California, Los Angeles, endures pointed questions about her Jewish identity during confirmation hearing on her nomination to student council's Judicial Board; debate centers on Beyda's affiliation with Jewish organizations and how it might subject her to bias; Jewish leaders say discussion echoes anti-Semitic tropes that have plagued Jews for centuries. MORE

Mar. 5, 2015

French authorities report they have identified all three suspects that carried out 1982 attack on Jewish deli in Marais district of Paris, killing six people, including two Americans, and wounding 22 others; identifications of suspects, associates of Palestinian radical Abu Nidal, have been made in large part due to tireless efforts of investigating judge Marc Trevidic. MORE

Mar. 5, 2015

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has undertaken unofficial campaign to more closely ally himself with city's Jewish voters and to become a sort of international spokesman for Jewish concerns; has taken strong stand against rise of anti-Semitism in Europe, loosened regulations on ultra-Orthdox circumcision ritual and made plans to undertake his first state visit to Israel. MORE

Feb. 28, 2015

Editorial criticizes New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for abandoning effort, begun under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, to regulate ultra-Orthodox circumcision practice of metzitzah b'peh; notes practice, in which circumciser, or mohel, places his mouth and draws blood from infant's newly circumcised penis, has been linked to 12 herpes cases in infants and two deaths; urges Board of Health to reject de Blasio's plan to scale back regulation of practice. MORE

Feb. 27, 2015

Op-Ed article by Danish newspaper editor Bo Lidegaard contends February attack on Copenhagen synagogue is particularly troubling given Denmark's long history of protecting its Jewish citizens; says Denmark's strategy of treating Jews and other religious minorities the same as other citizens is challenged by need to single them out to protect them from such attacks; holds challenge is to confront extremism and institute protections without creating divisions. MORE

Feb. 25, 2015

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio reaches compromise with ultra-Orthodox Jewish rabbis to ease restrictions on metzitzah b’peh, circumcision practice in which rabbi uses mouth to suck blood from incision; parents will no longer have to sign consent form before ritual, but any rabbi found to have transmitted herpes to baby will be banned from practice for life. MORE

Feb. 19, 2015

French prosecutor Philippe Vannier says five teenagers arrested for overturning as many as 250 gravestones in Jewish cemetery in eastern France had clear anti-Semitic motive. MORE

Feb. 19, 2015

Raida Journal; Yemen's dwindling and embattled Jewish population, which predates Muslims in country by centuries, is more threatened than ever following Houthi rise to power; Houthi leaders have made anti-Semitism central to their platform, causing uncertainty and anxiety among country's Jews. MORE

Feb. 17, 2015

French police detain five teenagers in connection with desecration of as many as 250 gravestones in Jewish cemetery near German border; remains unclear whether vandalism was motivated by anti-Semitism, but nonetheless increases sense among European Jews that they are under attack. MORE

Feb. 15, 2015

Op-Ed article by author Susan Jacoby defends Pres Obama from criticisms directed at his reference to Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition; relates how First Crusade claimed as its first victims Jews, rather than Muslims from which Christian warriors were trying to liberate Jerusalem; notes similarities between Christian Crusaders and modern terrorist groups like Islamic State. MORE

Feb. 2, 2015

UJA-Federation of New York releases first comprehensive study of small but growing trend of synagogues that have switched from charging mandatory annual dues to voluntary pledge system; around 30 synagogues across the United States have adopted voluntary system, which seeks to address questions about mandatory system's sustainability. MORE

Jan. 31, 2015

Mark Oppenheimer Beliefs column observes that most rabbis are willing to perform same-sex marriages, but not interfaith marriages. MORE

Jan. 30, 2015

Portuguese government grants dual citizenship to descendants of Sephardic Jews but only if they can prove a connection to Portuguese Sephardic Jews. MORE

Jan. 25, 2015

Orthodox Jewish sex counselor Bat Sheva Marcus has over course of five years been helping ultra-Orthodox women overcome aversion to sex without violating tenets of their faith; Marcus views her work as way to advance cause of educating ultra-Orthodox women about their bodies in way that does not clash with her respect for their, and her own, faith. MORE

Jan. 21, 2015

Editorial argues best response to mysterious death of Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman is to create international team to investigate truth about 1994 terrorist bombing of Buenos Aires Jewish community center; notes that Nisman was expected to testify that Pres Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner had cut deal with Iran to protect some of those behind attack, and was convinced Hezbollah was responsible; raises questions about eagerness of Kirchner's government to attribute Nisman's death to suicide. MORE

Jan. 20, 2015

Perplexing death of Argentine federal prosecutor Alberto Nisman has gripped nation and deepened mystery surrounding his 10-year investigation into 1994 suicide bombing at Jewish center that left 85 people dead; at time of his death, Nisman was scheduled to testify before lawmakers about his accusations that Pres Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and top officials had conspired with Iran to hide its responsibility for the bombing in order to secure deal Iranian oil deal. MORE

Jan. 16, 2015

Shmuel Rosner Op-Ed article laments that terrorist attack on kosher grocery store in Paris has raised question of whether Jews have future in France, which is home to world's third-largest Jewish community; observes that Israeli Prime Min Benjamin Netanyahu has responded by calling for French Jews to move to Israel; expresses sorrow that only option Israel can offer to embattled Jews is that of escape. MORE

Jan. 15, 2015

Special prosecutor charges Argentinian Pres Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Foreign Min Hector Timerman with covering up agreement with Iran to speed investigation into Iran's 1994 bombing of Jewish community center in Buenos Aires; legal complaint holds that Iran agreed to send oil to Argentina in exchange for agreement. MORE

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